# Merge Approvals

### Descriptions <a href="#descriptions" id="descriptions"></a>

If you want to make sure every merge is approved by one or more people, you can enforce this workflow by using merge approvals. Merge approvals allow you to set the number of necessary approvals that will need to approve every merge in a project.

### Use Cases <a href="#use-cases" id="use-cases"></a>

* Enforcing review of all code that gets merged into a repository.
* Specifying reviewers for a given proposed code change.

### Configuring Approvals <a href="#configuring-approvals" id="configuring-approvals"></a>

To configure the merge approvals:

1. Login to ARM with the admin credentials.
2. Navigate to **Admin > My Account** and expand the **Merge Settings**
3. Tick the **Enable criteria based Review Process** checkbox.
4. Select the **Enable Merge Approver** checkbox.
5. Set the minimum number of required approvals under the **Approval Level** box. ***Minimum Approval Level can be 1.***

<figure><img src="https://1912836914-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9vAxMuDrkUkB4OXlH9CL%2Fuploads%2FEJr4EMp55u7dIAZVbgQs%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=f3ee4953-4986-4cd3-a07c-c39e173f60ba" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

6. Click **Save**.
7. The steps above are the minimum required to get approvals working in your merge, but there are a couple more options available that might be suitable to your workflow:

   * **Auto commits on Approval:** This option will allow developers to work on their feature branches and after review (approved), it gets automatically commit to the trunk.
   * **Disable Merge Self Approval:** This option will allow you to prevent *EZ-Merge approvers* that have committed to a merge from approving it. However, the Org admins can still view the *approve/reject* option and proceed with all the merges.

   <figure><img src="https://1912836914-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9vAxMuDrkUkB4OXlH9CL%2Fuploads%2FtA4LeLtzkj6eJ78GFVv6%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=ee870d93-df96-4efc-9323-9b17f7c8d73d" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Eligible Approvers <a href="#eligible-approvers" id="eligible-approvers"></a>

1. No criteria can restrict the **org admin** from approving any merge.
2. Even if the **Disable Merge Self Approval** checkbox is selected, the **org admin** can approve their own merges.
3. The **EZ-Merge Approver** *(non-admin user)* is not allowed to approve their own merges if the **Disable Merge Self Approval** checkbox is selected.
4. If the approval level is set to 2, and the **org admin** or **merge administrator** approves the merge, **no more approval** is needed.
5. The L1 and L2 approver email IDs cannot be the same when the approval level is set to 2.

#### More Informations <a href="#more-informations" id="more-informations"></a>

The following details pertain to the criteria for commit validation approval:

1. There are no restrictions on the **org admin**'s ability to approve any prevalidation commits.
2. If the **Disable Commit Self Approval** checkbox is enabled in **Commit Validation - Approval Settings**, the gated check-ins approvers will not be able to approve their own commit unless they are a **org admin**. The org admins can view the *approve/reject* option and proceed with the prevalidation commits.
3. If the **Enable Commit Approver** checkbox is checked, the *admin* and the gated check-ins approver added to the reviewer list will be allowed to approve the prevalidation commits.

<figure><img src="https://1912836914-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9vAxMuDrkUkB4OXlH9CL%2Fuploads%2FSuZsTHdq4VAVr4h2G501%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=3cda9747-3e5e-4a83-a3a7-8e98ce7ae900" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>